The former chief executive of Collins Stewart, who led the aggressive expansion of the UK bank before his departure late last year, has re-emerged alongside a senior ex-colleague to take control of a US broker in the midst of its own growth push.

The company was founded in 1979 and has a team on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, as well as a proprietary algorithmic platform for electronic trading. McLoughlin said the firm will initially stick to equities but will look to introduce equity derivatives and also has plans to expand overseas.

Reynders, Gray is located in offices on 5th Avenue in Manhattan, but will in due course move to a new, fully-functional trading floor on Madison Avenue that is capable of holding over 150 brokers.

McLoughlin told Financial News: “The people have an old school philosophy in looking after clients and there has been no turnover which was very important to us.”

Plasco resigned as chief executive of Collins Stewart last October after two and a half years and making a series of acquisitions that helped the UK stockbroker diversify its business model away from capital markets.

During Plasco’s tenure, Collins Stewart bought Hawkpoint, an independent advisory house in the UK; ISTC, the Dublin-based provider of bank capital; and CE Unterberg Towbin, a US investment bank. He was also instrumental in establishing an office in Singapore.

Plasco said in a statement: “While some see the current difficult economic climate as potentially harmful to business, we believe these times offer unprecedented opportunities – this is one of our areas of expertise."